Should Appetite For Destruction be remastered?

[conny]

Yes, as long Clink is involved and as long as they won't remaster it do death with some 96khz/24bit audio - sure, why not?


But then again, personally, I just love that vintage sound, the reverb and everything, just right as it is.

[ryan_of_lax]

The UYI's have way too much reverb. They need the remastering more....

But have you ever heard the Vinyl version of Appetite For Destruction? It's very different than the CD version. Like, in Sweet Child O Mine, there is a whole other guitar track in the first half of the long solo. I can't hear it anywhere on the CD.

I know The Cure complained about this a lot too, when they recorded their albums in the 80s. Said they always turned to crap when put to CD. They're remastering all of their CDs, and they sound awesome. It's nothing big, but nice for a change.

[Gunner80]

No, I don't like albums I love messed with.

[metallex78]

I think a remastered dual disc would be the way to go, with one side the album and the other side all the film clips, plus maybe some rare footage, demos and a revised booklet with some liner notes by the band.

I'd definitely buy that!

[AxemanOnFire]

I think there should be a really awesome box-set 3-disc 20th anniversary edition:
Disc 1 - Appetite for Destruction remastered from the original master recordings by Mike Clink in full 5.1 digital surround sound.
Disc 2 - AFD-era rarities, outtakes and live performances (eg Shadow of Your Love, the Hellhouse rehearsal of Jumpin' Jack Flash cleaned up and properly mastered, Cornchucker etc).
Disc 3 - A DVD, It's So Easy: The Story of Appetite for Destruction, with interviews from the band members (although I don't know if Axl would do it), the bands they opened for, producers, music-biz guys from Geffen etc. The DVD would tell the story of GN'R from their childhoods (Lafayette to LA or something), early bands they played in, the beginnings of GN'R, the recording process and tour, and the album finally 'blowing up' when they opened for Aerosmith. Snippets of live shows and a suitably rockin' soundtrack would, of course, come as standard.

Actually, add a booklet with liner notes by Clink, the band, groupies and stuff to that - make it a real collectable. It could almost be made into a GN'R starter pack


EDIT - the UYIs should be put together in a box-set too, again with a DVD (Bad Obsession: The Story of Use Your Illusion I & II) perhaps?). Sure, they'd be expensive, but newer fans could buy either or both sets and get a much better idea of GN'R than they would with say the Greatest Hits. If Geffen are complaining about Axl's spending sprees on their proverbial credit card recording Chinese Democracy, then why not really beat the dead horse? There's life in the ole girl yet, and I've already been seeing people my age getting into Guns (and after only minimal prodding, persuasion and "Seriously, they're much better than [insert name of crappy MTV band here]!")

[wadey]

appetite remastered?..........................................DEFINATELY   

[Sino-lieS]

I have a question.....(maybe its a very dumb question but here goes......)

Exactly what do they do when they remaster something?

I remember hearing Axl say in an interview to Loder that they redid the AFD. He said they took out

"subtle 80's signatures...double bass, less reverb"

So lets say Axl or whoever remasters AFD.....exactly what happens ...clearer guitar, drums? bass? vocals?

I find these technical topics very interesting!

[jarmo]

So lets say Axl or whoever remasters AFD.....exactly what happens ...clearer guitar, drums? bass? vocals?

Well, in the case of the "old" Pearl Jam tracks on their "Greatest Hits" album, you can hear things that weren't really that easy to hear in the original mix.

Also, it sounds like they boost the bass and cut down on the reverb....




/jarmo

[ShotgunBlues1978]

I'd love to hear a remastered version of Appetite For Destruction especially if some bonus songs or features were included with it. 

I'd also like remastered versions of the UYI albums, I think they'd actually benefit more from being remastered than AFD because there are more musical layers, and on some songs the clarity of the vocals is not that good

[Genesis]

I don't think remastering will make a difference. But a dual disc would be nice though...

[Drew]

I think it's great idea if Appetite For destruction was remastered. Heck, remaster both Use Your Illusion albums too.

(Can anyone else tell I'm really GN'R/Axl hungry?)

[Sino-lieS]

Hmmm more bass eh?....I like that!
I think it would be fantastic to hear even little things in AFD if it were remastered. Believe me I could probably pick up new sounds since I have listenned to it 12000 times!.

THX!

[Smoking Guns]

I have the 24 ct gold and it claims to be rematered from the "original source" and to be the most accurated depiction of those source tapes.  Oh well.  It does sound awesome.  The appettite songs on greatest hits seem to have a lot more bass to me.  Wasn't there a rumor those were remastered?

[C0ma]

What I would really like to see happen is when the G'N'R contract with Geffen ends, have the new label purchase the entire G'N'R catalog and re-release it the way AC/DC did last year. All of their albums were re-mastered and special features were added to each.

ShotgunBlues is on the right track, Even UYI 1+2 would benefit greatly from being re-mastered (after all the technology on those albums is 14 years old)

[John Daniels]

It would be really interesting to hear remastered version..

but then again, why to change something that is already a masterpiece. In the best way we have a win win situation here.

[Silex]

Yes. I was thinking about remastering the old records (pre-"TSI?" ones) other day and thought about asking it here. A lot of bands has done this but hearing how CD is mastered I don't think GN'R are any interested of remastering those old records.

And I also was thinking if those old DVDs would get re-released for Blu-ray. Better audio/video quality etc.. It would be nice.

But don't get me wrong because what I really want, is some live shit from the current tour/band. 

[Halo69]

Well i have the ultimate remaster of that Appetite! So far there's no better than this, which is the SHM-CD.
Its way superior to the original version.

I also have Chinese Democracy as SHM-CD, but i gotta say that on this one you cant notive much difference from the original, except that you can hear the drums and those little fills better.

I do think every Guns N'Roses album should get a remaster, just like the other albums in other bands.

For example (and this is not the best example for someone) but Poison had their greatest hits remastered in 1996 and they sounded pretty good, but when the new Greatest Hits from 2006 came out, the songs on there sound much much better, so i bought it! And it was a great buy!

I think they should re-release Appetite for Destruction remastered and maybe with a few extras, maybe demos.. like Don't Cry 1987 version, which was actually the first GNR song, or something like that

[Limulus]

the 1st japanese pressing and the MFSL release of AFD sound way superior than the standard release, get those!
dont like "re"-masters.....as they mostly just re-equalize stuff from the CD itself (not the real master tapes) often resulting in the horrible loudness war without any dynamics, its really a pain these days! but a soloution could be re-transfering the real analog master tracks with todays equipment into like 24bit/176,4khz and re-mixing it properly. they most likely did that already as a back up but re-releasing AFD right now might not be the best timing, lets wait for 25, 30, 40,....anniversary 

[Z?phyr]

I'm not really into remasters... that said, I prefer the albums as they were intended back then (not only GN'R but music in general) of course things can be better or worse with remasters, you could also have 10 different remaster versions if you send of the tapes to 10 mastering engineers... all will have there own approach & mastering chain & result...

I'm for if this means that AFD would benefit 100% from being remastered, but no remix... again not only the performances on this album made it what it is but also the mixes...

[Limulus]

^^good points!
leads me to the thought that they could just re-transfer the 1987 analog mix master (if that still exists that is) in a higher quality product like DVD-Audio or SA-CD etc.
that would let the old loved mix untouched but it would be much higher quality. as we are with quality i still dont get it why industry is so slow in spreading higher quality audio products. i mean the CD standard is from early 80s!! in video we have Blu-Ray now but audio gets often even more compressed for itunes (etc.) than the damn old CD standard 16bit/44,1khz WAV.